I Can't Live Without You
by ijustcantstayawayfromyou
Summary: The midst of a huge fight, Ian finds himself in the middle of a mental break down when he learns that the love of his life has been involved in a accident, and is fighting for her life. Inspired by Highway Don't Care by Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift - Lucian AU, please review! (:


**Alright, hey guys! I'm new here to fanfiction, but I have tons of Ian and Lucy shorts that I am dying to share with my fellow Lucian lovers. (; And I'm currently in the process of outlining a full length Lucy and Ian story, that I will share with you guys in the future. That is IF you guys like my stuff, (: So anyways, enjoy, and don't forget to review to leave me your thoughts! Thank you guys so much 3**

Ian's P.O.V.

"Luce?" I shout as I walk out of our bedroom and into the living room of our small apartment. "Have you seen my phone? I've looked everywhere and I'm running late." I was currently on my way to work where I would spend the next forty eight hours working as part of our life flight team. The team was made up of a pilot, a co pilot, and two medics who ride in the back and take care of the patients. I was one of the two medics.

I make my way into the living room and find her sitting on the couch. She was staring at me, tears running down her cheeks. I quickly sit my duffel bag on the coffee table and rush over to her "Luce, what's wrong?" I ask panicked. It was then, that I saw my phone in her hand.

She wipes her eyes as she begins to speak. "I was too tired to come to bed when I got home from work this morning," Lucy was a trauma unit nurse at the local hospital and often worked crazy shifts, just like I did. "So I just fell asleep here. I was woken up by your phone ringing. It had fallen in the couch cushions. I picked it up and not thinking, looked to see who it was, in case it was something important but then I saw – " She stops mid sentence and looks down, sobbing.

"Saw what?" I ask, sitting down on the couch next to her and taking my phone from her.

She just shakes her head as more and more tears roll down her cheeks. "How long?"

"How long what?" I ask as I look down at the phone. My eyes widen when I see the message, still pulled up, from my ex girlfriend Sophie.

**_I know I shouldn't be texting you because I know Lucy hates me, but I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed being with you the other day! I can't wait to do it again! (;_**

"Have you been cheating on me?" She demands, her sadness suddenly gone, and anger replacing it.

I jump up off the couch next to her and just stare at her in shock. "Are you serious?" I shout. "I would never cheat on you Lucy! I love you!"

She just scoffs. "Really? Then what's with the message?"

I bite my bottom lip before telling her the story. "Sophie was in town last week, visiting her parents. We went out and had lunch, but that was it. I swear."

She glares at me as she stands up and rests her hands on her hips. "It sure doesn't sound like it."

"Well I don't care what it **sounds** like; I'm standing here telling you what happened. Lucy, she hasn't been a part of my life for years, **you** are the one I love. **You** are the one I'm marrying."

"Do you still love her?" She asks, dead serious.

At that, I just shake my head and scoff. "Really? Lucy, I just told you, I love YOU not her. Now, I don't have time to stand around here and argue with you over something so stupid. I'm late for work."

"I don't care!" She shouts, following me to the door. "I'm not waiting two whole days to talk about this."

"We aren't talking, we're fighting," I remind her, walking to the elevator and pushing the button.

She rolls her eyes. "You know what? Screw it. Do whatever Ian, I don't care. I'm going home to my parents for a few days; don't bother calling me or texting me." And with that, she turns around and storms back into our apartment, slamming the door after her.

I wince slightly at the loudness of it, but snap out of it when the elevator dings. I look back to our closed apartment door and sigh before getting in the elevator and pushing the bottom floor button. I would give her time to calm down and then call her once I got to work.

"So," Keegan, my best friend, ask as he walks over and sits down in the chair next to me. "How's the soon to be misses?"

I look up from my phone, where I had tried numerous times to text and call Lucy with no answer, to him and Tyler, my other best friend, and shrug. "I don't know. We've been better." Tyler and Keegan both work with me, as part of the life flight team. Tyler is one of our pilots while Keegan is the other medic.

"Why?" Tyler asks as he takes another bite of his lunch and looks at me. "What did you do now?"

I shoot him and Keegan, who had started laughing, a look before letting out a sigh. "I had lunch with Sophie last week."

"Uh oh," Tyler says.

"Mistake number one," Keegan says with a nod while holding up his pointer finger.

I give them a weird look before continuing on. "And I didn't tell Lucy,"

"Are you stupid," Tyler asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Mistake number dos," Keegan replies holding up two fingers.

"And then Sophie texted me this morning telling me she had fun and of course Lucy found it before I did."

"Oh, nice going," Once again, Tyler says.

"Dude, mistake number nine hundred and fifty thousand." Keegan says shaking his head. "You're screwed."

I just stare at the two of them before rolling my eyes. "No shit Sherlock,"

Keegan opens his mouth to speak whatever smart aleck remark he always has on hand, when all of a sudden all three of our radios go off.

"Central dispatch air back medical chopper number 524 one motor vehicle accident with serious injuries. Ground personal needing your assistance. Patient is extremely critical. Switch to off channel for coordinates and vitals. Patient cannot be moved off sight by ambulance. " The female voice comes through our radios.

Within a second, we all jump up and run toward the chopper without a second guess, leaving everything behind. Tyler jumps in the front of the plane, flipping everything on and putting on his headset while Shawn, our copilot does the flight check. Meanwhile, Keegan and I check and make sure we have all the supplies we will need. Once everything was set and accounted for, we each put our own headsets on and take off.

Twenty minutes later we had finally arrived and landed on the scene of the accident. We all quickly throw our head sets off and grab our supplies and jump out of the plane. We make our way over to where the patient was lying, unconscious, on a back board, in the middle of the road. The road had been blocked off by the police and they were already working hard to keep the public back.

The EMT's meet us half way to give us the report as we continue to make our way to the patient.

"24 year old female, multiple injuries. Severe head injuries, has not gained consciousness upon arrival. Pupil's not reactive to light. Bi lateral compound leg fractures, no petal pulses bilaterally. Blood pressure is 60/42. Pulse is weak and thready. Respiration 12 shallow and labored. Patient has been intubated with no problems. Identification found on patient in personal belongings, license found patient identified as one Lucy Hale. Unable to identify next of kin,"

"What?" I briefly hear Tyler say as my heart starts to beat out of my chest. Until now, I had been in the zone, one of professionalism, but I was brought out of that and into protective fiancé mode when I heard Lucy's name leave the EMT's lips.

"Oh shit," I hear Keegan add before I cut him off.

"Yeah because I'm the fucking next of kin," I shout at all of them before dropping my bag and taking off running toward where she lies in the middle of the street, still unconscious.

"Oh my god, Lucy," I mumble as I collapse next to her. Everybody was staring at me, as if I was crazy, but I didn't care. I just stare down at the love of my life as the tears rush from my eyes and down my cheeks.

Looking at her, took my breath away, and not in its usual way. It broke my heart to see her this way. She was cut up everywhere from her head to her toes, and she was covered in her own blood. She had a huge gash over her right eye, a piece of pressure bandage and tape was over it. Both of her eyes were black, her nose was visibly broken and crooked. Her lip was busted, and her face was slightly swollen. Her arms and legs were at her sides and both of her legs were blue, from lack of circulation. Over all, she was a mess, and it killed me to see her like that. I would gladly take her place in a heartbeat. I wanted so badly to reach over and take her hand in mind, but as a professional, I knew better. I knew that it would only make her condition much worse, so instead I just opted to stare at her, as the tears continue to roll down my face and crash onto the pavement beneath me.

A few seconds later I feel a presence behind me and I turn around at the sound of my name.

Keegan looks down at me, with tears in his own eyes and gives me a sympathetic smile. "Dude, I know the situation, but we have to get her to the hospital or it's –"he trails off, but I know exactly where he was going with his sentence.

I just nod before standing up and grabbing my stuff from Tyler, who just simply pats me on the back. The next five minutes were spent loading Lucy from the ground, onto the stretcher and into the plane.

Everyone else was already in the plane, and I was about to climb in when I felt a pair of hands on my arm. I turn around to face an older police officer; he looked to be about in his fifties. He gives me a sympathetic smile before handing me Lucy's phone, her purse and a few other belongings.

"I'm sorry about your fiancé," He says.

I just give him a slight nod as I take the stuff from him. "Thanks,"

He turns around and walks off and I quickly stuff her phone and the mini baggy with her engagement ring in my pocket before climbing in the plane.

Once I was in and settled, we take off and I turn to Keegan, who was already working on Lucy.

I reach over for a pair of gloves and slip them on before turning to them to help, but stop when Keegan shakes his head at me. "No,"

"No what?" I slightly snap.

He gives me a look. "You can't work on her Ian, you're too upset. "

I just stare at him. "Keegan, I can't just sit here and watch my fiancé die!"

"She's not going to die!" He snaps back, fighting back tears of his own. He and Lucy had grown very close over the years since she and I had gotten together. I knew he loved her too, and I knew he was upset. I knew he was doing everything in his power to stay strong, somebody had to, but he was quickly fading. "I won't let her. You are way too upset to do anything, just let me do this. You can just keep an eye on her monitors." He says motioning to the beeping machines behind him.

"But," I start, but was cut off.

"He's right," Tyler says from the front of the plane. "Ian you are too upset. Just watch the monitors and let Keegan work."

I look back and forth between the two of them before sighing, knowing they were right. Sure, they were both upset, but they both were more focused than I was, and that was clear. I knew I was of no help right now, so I just sit back and watch the monitors, constantly looking over to Lucy when I would hear Keegan whisper different things such as "Come on Luce," or "Please Lucy," as he continued to work on her.

Finally, after a long thirty minute flight to the nearest trauma hospital, we had finally landed and got Lucy inside. The doctors took her from us and took her directly into the O.R. while Keegan, Tyler and I move to the waiting room.

I was currently sitting in the chair, leaned forward with my head resting in my hands, while Keegan was sitting in the chair next to me. Tyler was pacing back and forth talking on the phone to Chris, our boss.

Finally, he hangs up and walks back over to where we were sitting. "Chris said take as much time as you need. He said it doesn't care how long you need, not to worry about it." I just simply nod, still slightly in a fog. "He will be here as soon as he can." I once again just nod.

We sit in silence for about thirty minutes before Shawn walks over to us. "I hate to bug you guys but Tyler; we have to get the plane back to the station,"

Tyler sighs as he turns to look at Keegan. "Will you stay here with him while I take the plane back? I promise I will come back as soon as I can drop the plane off and get someone to cover us,"

Keegan just nods. "Yeah, I'm not going anywhere."

He nods before patting me on the back. "Alright, you need anything?"

I just shake my head "No, I'm good."

He nods before standing up and walking off with Shawn.

Three days later I was sitting in Lucy's room, watching her still unconscious form.

Things have been going pretty well, but they could honestly be better. It turns out Lucy had two broken legs, three broken ribs on her left side, two fractured ribs on her right side. Due to her broken ribs, her left lung was collapsed. She also had a broken nose, both of her eyes were blackened, her face and her entire body was cut up and scraped up. She also had suffered swelling on her brain from the impact.

After numerous surgeries, all of the bones in her legs had been reset and her legs were wrapped up in casts. She had also had surgery to re inflate her left lung, but they had to remove part of one of her unbroken ribs on her left side to get to it. Sadly, there was nothing they can do for broken ribs, so those will just have to heal on their own. From there, she had undergone surgery with a plastic surgeon so that the bones in her nose could be reset. The swelling in her brain had gone down luckily, and they did not have to end up doing surgery to relieve the pressure, like they originally thought they would. She had also been taken off the life support machine, and had the tube removed from her throat, seeing as how she was managing to breathe on her own. She was still unconscious, but the doctors said she would wake up on her own time and that it would hopefully be soon.

All in all, she was already doing a million times better than she was at first, but she still had a long road ahead of her as far as recovery goes, but hey, at least she is expected to make a full recovery. When the doctor told me that, I litterly broke down crying, from pure happiness. Hearing those words, it felt like I had a weight lifted off my shoulders, and I could all of a sudden see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I was currently sitting in the chair next to her bed, talking on the phone to her mother Julie. She and her step father Bryan, were in Europe on vacation when the accident had happened. They unfortunately were having trouble getting a flight back, so I had been filling them in on how she was doing. They had finally managed to get a flight for tonight, and they would be arriving tomorrow morning. Her sister was on the first flight out after the accident, and was currently back at mine and Lucy's apartment sleeping. I had sent her after she sat here all night. She argued, telling me I needed to go sleep more, but I wasn't having it. Finally, I got her to give in.

Since arriving at the hospital with Lucy, I haven't left, not once. Troian, Keegan and all of our friends tried their hardest to get me to go home, and sleep but I refused. It wasn't that I didn't trust them to sit with her while I was gone, because I did, but I wanted to be here in case something happened. Eventually they all gave up, and Keegan went back to mine and Lucy's apartment to get me a bag of stuff I would need. The nurses had even wheeled in a bed to rest in the far corner of the rather larger room, but it was no use. I hadn't used it once. I usually just sat in the chair next to Lucy's bed and waited. I would often nod off and on in the chair, it was far from comfy, but honestly that was the last thing on my mind.

I had just hung up the phone when I felt the bed shift and my hand being squeezed. My head instantly whips around to see Lucy looking at me, smiling. "Hey stranger," she says in a somewhat raspy voice, from the tubes that had been down her throat.

Seeing her awake, my eyes instantly feel with tears and I jump up to hug her, being careful so I didn't hurt her. After a few minutes I pull back and look her in the eyes, a huge smile on my face. "Hey there sleeping beauty, how you feeling?"

She grimaces. "I feel like I've been ran over by a Mac truck,"

I chuckle slightly, not at her being in pain, but at her in general. She is honestly the only person in the world I know that could be in this situation and laugh about it.

"Well you're pretty close." She just looks at me confused, and I shrug. "Later, we need to get a doctor in here to look you over,"

About an hour later, the doctors had looked Lucy over and said that they were very pleased with her progress. I had then gone on to tell her everything that had happened. She took the news very well, considering the circumstances. She was now napping, and I had reached over and picked up her phone for the first time since the accident.

I quickly power it on and smile to myself when I see the picture of me and her. It was taken back just a few weeks ago at a cookout at Keegan house. We were standing in his pool, and Lucy was standing in front of me. I was leaned over, my arms tightly around her waist from behind. She had a huge goofy grin on her face and her hands were holding tightly onto my arms around her waist as I leaned down and planted a huge kiss on her cheek.

I spent the next twenty minutes looking through different pictures of us, one from Christmas, classic with us under the mistletoe, to one of us at her sister's wedding, to the one of us taken just the day before the accident, sitting on the couch. She was sitting in my lap, her arm around my neck while she took the picture with her other hand. I had both of my arms around her waist and my face was buried in her shoulder, to avoid the picture while she was turned around smiling at me.

Looking through the pictures I couldn't help but smile. I had come so close to losing the love of my life, and now I was beyond happy that she was still in front of me. Sure, she was a little banged up, but I guess you could just say we were getting a head start on the 'in sickness and in health,' vow.

After looking at all of her pictures, I quickly exit out of the app and let my finger hover over the text message app. I silently debate whether or not I should open it, not to be nosey, but just to clear my mind. For the last three days I just had this feeling, this feeling that this was my entire fault, I had to know.

Finally, I give in and click on the little envelope. My heart litterly stops beating and my worst fear comes true when the app opens directly to the last text message I had ever sent her, meaning that was what she was looking at when she crashed.

I look up to where Lucy was lying with tears in my eyes, to only see her staring at me.

"Ian," She could always read me better than anyone I've ever known.

I just shake my head as the tears break loose and rush out. "I did this to you," I croak out.

She shakes her head as she reaches for my hand. I give in and let her hold my hand, her thumb running in small circles. "This isn't your fault Ian; I wasn't paying attention like I should have been."

"Yeah, because you were looking at a text message from **me**,"

She just shakes her head. "No, that has nothing to do with it. I could have been reading a message from anyone Ian. Look on the phone, you will see that I had also talked to Ashley, Maggie and Troian that day, it could have easily been one of their messages."

"But it wasn't,"

"STOP!" She shouts, and I jump slightly. "I will not let you beat yourself up about this. It wasn't your fault! Okay?! Now stop!"

I stare at her for a minute and she raises an eyebrow at me, causing me to sigh. "Alright, sorry." I would just let her believe that I had forgotten, but it was always going to be in the back of my head, that **_I_** did this to her. That it was my fault.

A small smile forms across her lips, "I love you Ian,"

I just smile as I lean up to kiss her sweetly. "I love you too Luce,"

Just then, the door to her room flies open, and in walks Keegan. His face instantly lights up when he sees Lucy awake and talking. Of course, I had called him and everyone else when she woke up, but everybody I called all said the same thing, that they wouldn't feel any better until they could see her. Of course Keegan was the first to show up.

"Well miracles do come true, look at you Luce!" He says walking over to Lucy. He leans down and kisses her forehead slightly before hugging her gently. "It's so good to see you awake."

"Keegs!" She squeals as she reaches up and hugs him back. "How are you?"

He chuckles as he pulls back from the hug and smiles down at her. "Well I'm doing pretty well, how about you?"

She shrugs. "Eh, I've been better."

He just stares at her, amazed.

"Keegs?"

"Yes Luce?"

"Thank you," She mumbles.

"For what?" He asks, looking back and forth between me and her. He had never been one for mushy feelings and what not, and Lucy was well aware of this. This should be fun.

"For saving my life," She says smiling up at him. "For taking care of my man over here," She says pointing to me. I just raise an eyebrow as I watch her. "If it wasn't for Mr. Bad ass - Keegan - eight pack – baby blue, bedroom eyes – Allen, I don't know where I would be, or if I would even be alive."

At that, he just smiles. "It was my pleasure, Luce."


End file.
